US federal eggheads have proposed a novel method of preventing biometric ID systems being spoofed by the use of such things as contact lenses, fake fingerprints etc. Instead of easily-fooled systems of this sort, people should instead be identified using X-ray photographs of their knees.
Lior Shamir of the US National …

So?

Quite apart from the cancer risk

What happens if you dislocate or otherwise damage your knee in an accident or suffer from arthritis or osteoporosis which is common in the elderly? Presumably it wouldn't be too effective in those whose bones are still growing either, leaving an effective age range of maybe only 25-50?

When will folk realise that biometrics have their inherent problems - peoples bodies are not a constant - and just give up?

Soz...

Geez, such simpletons should give their money to that nice lady from Nigeria

I have had knee surgery which radically corrected a problem, and my knees before and after look very different on the X-ray. A quick spot of scalpel-work adding temporary lumps and bumps would be well worth it for terrorists and drug barons. It could even be done key-hole.

I'd also like to see hands-up of all chaps who don't mind a blast of X-rays near the family jewels every time they are off to Marbella.

Woudln't

Early April Fool?

I had to re-check the date the date when I read this, and it is not April 1st. I don't know what is scarier, the prospect of having Jacqui Smith wanting intimate pictures of my knees or the queues at the x-ray scanners at Heathrow.

And then...

Slightly better

... than the boobie based recognition system I was working on for a few years, unfortunately it wasn't robust enough to cope with terrorists using implants, stll, all that time spent researching someone seemed worth it.

RE: Cancer risks

Biometrics are not the answer.

Firstly, if (like Wacky Jacky) you are hoping to track tiny groups within a population of several tens of millions, you need an accuracy several *orders of magnitude* better than any known biometric, to avoid being flooded with false positives.

Secondly, revoking a biometric is Hard (tm), requiring anything from surgery to reincarnation.

Thirdly, most biometrics actually change over time, so as far as any identity database is concerned we are all constantly morphing into other people.

Imaging trying to secure a computer system where the number of possible passwords was less than the number of users, where users aren't allowed to change their passwords, but where a background process on the system *does* make small changes (without telling the users).

How can you win?

Everyone's complaining so much that there is zero way to come up with a system that will satisfy everyone, and if it doesn't satisfy everyone, those it doesn't will yell so loud that it'll be removed just to shut them up. Fingerprints can be covered, irises can be covered, bones can be damaged, blood is not fine enough, and even DNA can't distinguish identical twins. And not even profiling will be 100% effective--it won't stop DOMESTIC terrorists like US's Timothy McVeigh. Should we just throw up the white flag at this point?